I had the pleasure of attending a local Denver event called GESTEM or Girls Exploring Science, Technology, Engineering & Math. This event is put on year after year by the Society of Women Engineers Rocky Mountain Section. 1000 middle school girls come to the Colorado Convention Center for a day of hands-on STEM workshops. Angela and I met some really creative girls who loved putting together a light up lotus pop-out card just in time for Mother’s Day! We even overheard some of the girls saying that this was their favorite workshop at the event! Woo hoo!

And most recently we descended upon San Mateo, California for the Bay Area Maker Faire! Roughly 195,000 people showed up this year to experience the whimsical, witty creations that filled the parking lots and buildings of the San Mateo County Event Center.

SparkFun’s education department partnered up with Intel to help children and adults put together a “magic wand” made of paper, copper tape, LEDS, coin cell batteries and paper clips. This project showed patrons just how easy it is to put together a circuit and learn the basics of circuitry! We had a great turnout!

Showing off an Intel tat!

SparkFun was also represented at the Atmel booth. Our COO, Trevor Zylstra engaged with hundreds of patrons about the anticipated MicroView, a chipped sized Arduino coming out later this year. SparkFun is a proud supporter, and we’re helping to manufacture these little guys with Geek Ammo, the creators.

Here are some more highlights from the Bay Area Maker Faire!

And lastly, to cap off the faire Derek and I were able to catch keynote speaker, Adam Savage, from MythBusters!

In 2003, CU student Nate Seidle blew a power supply in his dorm room and, in lieu of a way to order easy replacements, decided to start his own company. Since then, SparkFun has been committed to sustainably helping our world achieve electronics literacy from our headquarters in Boulder, Colorado.

No matter your vision, SparkFun's products and resources are designed to make the world of electronics more accessible. In addition to over 2,000 open source components and widgets, SparkFun offers curriculum, training and online tutorials designed to help demystify the wonderful world of embedded electronics. We're here to help you start something.